aloha blogging world. today is halloween and this post has already been interrupted by kiddies at the doorway. one little princess promptly handed ME candy as i opened the door to give her candy. i took it and offered her some of mine in exchange. a sweeter version of halloween, really. last night nick and i carved one hellava jack o' lantern and took loads of photos but alas! the put-the-pictures-up-on-the-blog-thing isn't working. next time maybe. you can witness the saga of my affair with jack...the lantern.
sorry i've been so incommunicado. i really have no excuse besides the usual---staring at a computer all day puts you in no kind of mood to stare at it again when you get home. and i've been sucked into the harry potter world and just laziness in general. but i'm beginning to snap out of it. i've taken to running in the gym every day of my life practically and yesterday...i'm proud to say...i ran three miles in 24 minutes! yay! i don't think i have run an eight minute mile since i was in middle school. go me. i made bread the other day--it was cardamom raisin bread and it's yummy. and i made beet ravioli tonight. it is also yummy. i'm on a cooking kick lately--it's such a nice way to spend some creative time--and you get to eat the results! speaking of food--my mouth drools at the thought of thanksgiving. i'm so so so excited to come home. mom asked me today if i had warned nick about the extended family--in all seriousness. i assured her that i indeed had, but now that she said something i've gotten a bit worried. but can one ever prepare someone for brady-isms and tante-isms and mom-isms and dad's sense of humour? i don't think i can even describe it. but he'll know soon enough....

i'm back. i've been home for about a week. i've been sleeping a lot. and reading harry potter. it is hot and dry. and there is wind blowing that is hot and dry. it makes me peevish. i made a terrarium today. i will write more later.

i snuck into one of the computers here at the service centre really quickly---the clients have all gone and we're closing up shop for the day. i'm exhausted. i've cried too much and i haven't had a decent meal in days. i am finding a restaurant and a beverage and i'm falling on my cot and that is that. i helped a lot of people today---i also didn't get to help a lot of people today but i'm trying not to think about that now. i have to go in 2 minutes or something---so some corrections on my wonderful boyfriend's post. she was 17 not 19. cardboard seperates the boys from the girls not the "clients" from the "staff". there is indeed a thick forest and a graveyard outside of my southern baptist temporary home. does that strike anyone else as creepy creepy creepy? um....what else? oh yeah---politics are corrupt--even when dealing with the red cross. i never ever ever want to live in monticello, mississippi. and----if i had to work this hard----i'd quit.
more later. love you all.

Nicholas, not Brandyn is writing this. She asked me to post something because she has no access to computers at all, and she wants family et al to know that she is ok. I posted something on my blog as well.

I heard from the lovely lady last night as she was in a field, drinking a little beer after some incredibly difficult days. I can not truly do her tales justice for they were told to me with such celerity; for the real seriatim and veracious details we all must wait for Brandyn to tell us.

Some highlights:

• She is staying in a Baptist church in Monticello, Mississippi, with only a cardboard divider seperating the Red Cross volunteers from the "clients." There are pitch pine (one of the volunteers is works in a lumber yard in PA) trees in front of the church, and behind that, a cemetary.
• Red Cross/FEMA management is disturbing. I didn't get much out of her on that subject, but surely we will hear all about it in a few weeks when she is a little bit more free to talk.
• Most people in the affected region are illiterate. They can not sign their own names, and certainly have no idea what to do with an ATM card.
  
• There are people still coming out of New Orleans.
• She had a pregnant 19 year old girl who had just gotten out of New Orleans early this week, where she had been stuck in a house with the corpse of her mother for days.
• She has made a circle of friends (she used the word "family") composed of amazing sounding people, including one woman with fern tattoos on her feet. Coincidence?
• This group of friends are going to try to go to New Orleans on their day off.

That's about all I can remember at the moment. She may return after two weeks, as I imagine the work is incredibly draining. I will post more as I hear it.